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Woman in Profile

Minerva Josephine Chapman

American Art

Minerva Chapman crafted this bravura portrait of an unidentified woman (possibly a self-portrait) with an intuitive understanding of the properties of the powdery charcoal medium applied to textured paper. She modeled forms tonally through sfumato, or smoky effects, reserving blank areas of paper for highlights. By turning the woman’s face away from the viewer, Chapman conveyed a sense of her privacy and inner life rather than revealing her personality, as in a conventional portrait.
MEDIUM Charcoal on cream, medium-weight, moderately textured laid paper with two watermarks
DATES n.d.
DIMENSIONS Sheet: 22 1/8 x 16 3/4 in. (56.2 x 42.5 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Unsigned
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 77.272
CREDIT LINE Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morse G. Dial, Jr.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Minerva Josephine Chapman (American, 1858–1947). Woman in Profile, n.d. Charcoal on cream, medium-weight, moderately textured laid paper with two watermarks, Sheet: 22 1/8 x 16 3/4 in. (56.2 x 42.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morse G. Dial, Jr., 77.272. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 77.272_IMLS_PS4.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 77.272_IMLS_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2010
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © Estate of Minerva Josephine Chapman
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